The Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica: Release 1

04 September 2018

The REMA team is proud to announce the release of the Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica. REMA provides the first high resolution (8-meter), high accuracy terrain dataset of approximately 98% of the contiguous continental landmass of Antarctica extending to 88°S.

REMA is constructed from hundreds of thousands of individual stereoscopic Digital Elevation Models (DEM) extracted from pairs of submeter resolution DigitalGlobe satellite imagery licensed by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, including data from WorldView-1, WorldView-2, and WorldView-3 acquired between 2009 and 2017, with most collected in 2015 and 2016.

Image credit: DigitalGlobe satellite / National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency - Subtle detail in the Larsen C Ice Shelf. The large crack in the upper right is the beginning of the formation of Iceberg A-68. North is to the left.